Strawberry Vacation
by Trisar
Summary: When Ranma, desiring a temporary leave of absence, follows Ryoga to get very lost, he suffers a head injury. In girl form and with no memory, Ranma wakes up in the hospital wing of an all girls school, willing to help a cute girl in need. DISCONTINUED
1. Prologue: Taking a Break

Strawberry Vacation

by Trisar Alvein

**THIS STORY IS HEREBY DISCONTINUED**

Yep. Another fanfic. Uh-huh. I need my head examined, I know.

Uh... let's see.. I don't own trademarks or copyrights to Ranma 1/2 or Strawberry Panic... S'about all I can think of... Just writing this because I felt like it after watching SP. Very good anime. I recommend it.

Moving on...

* * *

Prologue: Taking a Break

* * *

"This is ridiculous."

So uttered a pigtailed boy as he stood upon the roof of the house he was currently boarding in. His clothing was a bit ragged, and his body showed evidence of injuries, but on the whole he seemed fairly well off, besides the rather dangerous scowl on his face.

"How does asking for just a regular bowl of noodles end up getting me some tentacle-beast elder one for dinner?" he wondered aloud.

Now, the reader must first understand something. This boy, Ranma Saotome, the sixteen year old heir of the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, had never once read H.P. Lovecraft's work, and so would have no scholarly standing on how to identify creatures of Lovecraftian mythos.

No, the many-tentacled being that had crawled out of his bowl had actually declared itself Old One, Dread Cthulhu, and then had tried to eat his face off. Ironically, he'd been in the process of salting his noodles, and the salt seemed to have an incredibly adverse effect on the creature, melting it back into the bowl.

No, the author isn't quite sure why salt drove the creature off either. He's just rolling with it.

Ranma knew something had to give, and soon. And at the rate things were going, it was looking like it would be his sanity. A vacation was in order.

Which was why he was standing on the roof, his pack filled with supplies and on his back, while he scoped the local area for his target. There was only one person in the entire country (assuming he was in the country at the time) who get get him far enough away from this place, quickly enough to avoid detection, and so effectively that no one would be able to track him.

That person also stood a good chance of not being anywhere to be found within a hundred miles of where he actually wanted to be ninety percent of the time.

Someone was apparently on Ranma's side, though. The telltale red umbrella bobbing along the street spoke volumes, and if the boy carrying it knew how much he was about to help his most hated nemesis, his head would probably pop. Which was why Ranma employed every stealth trick he knew to evade detection while following the lost boy, whose name was of course Ryoga Hibiki, though he was very careful to not use the sealed Umisenken style.

_If I go psychotic, there'll be plenty of time for using the sealed techniques then, _he reasoned. _Why use them now?_

Now, Ranma was no expert on the Hibiki direction sense, but knew it operated considerably worse than nearly any other family's. What Ranma **did** know was that there was absolutely no way for him to turn a corner in pursuit of Ryoga and end up stumbling into a stable. Or, at least, he **thought** that was how it went.

Considering the Hibiki's propensity for getting lost in a room with one door, though...

One of the horses whinnied softly, but failed to rouse Saotome's notice.

"Hey! Who's there?" yelled a voice from the entrance. Startled from his thoughts, Ranma stepped backward quickly, turning toward the voice. In true Jusenkyo fashion, his foot happened upon a full water trough with enough force to tilt it vertical, sending cold water onto himself and the horse in front of him. The unstable platform his, now her, foot rested upon threw her balance off more than the sudden change in gender had, sending her sprawling to the ground with a squawk of surprise. With a loud thunking noise, the trough fell horizontal again, striking with enough force to break and creating another loud noise.

The horse in front of the prone Ranma was understandably startled by all of this sudden noise and activity in just a few seconds, especially so early in the morning when he hadn't yet had time to fully rouse itself. Synapses fired and instincts processed.

The last thing the redhead saw as she was pulling herself up was a horse's foot approaching her head at high speeds.

---

Amane Otori was not having a good day, and frankly, it had started when she woke up.

First, Hikari hadn't shared her bed last night, which caused the "Prince of St. Spica" a bit of frustration when she woke up. Not having her girlfriend with her to greet the day with a smile worked to sour her mood severely.

Second, on her way to the Etoile's greenhouse to check on some of the plants while she had time before classes, no less than two dozen of St. Spica's and St. Miator's girls had approached her with such a multitude of questions that it seemed like it was an endless chain of them.

After escaping the girls and tending to some plants (which had helped her calm down, admittedly; botany was a very relaxing art), she found out from some of the other girls who rode horses that one of the mounts in Star Bright's stable had somehow gotten an injury. Wanting to be assured of the horse's condition herself, she had rushed off to the field.

While en route to the stable, she had been ambushed by **more** girls with an unending torrent of questions. Luckily for all involved, Hikari chose that moment to make an appearance. Calming Amane's roiling emotions with a chaste kiss, the younger Etoile took the reins of the questioning girls and quickly sent them on their way.

Sharing another kiss with her girl, Amane explained where she was going and that she might be late for breakfast. Hikari nodded and smiled, and sent her on her way. And now, when she arrived at the stable she'd been headed for all this time, she found someone standing in front of Star Bright's place.

"Hey! Who's there?" she yelled, hoping to set the person off guard long enough to get an explanation from them. She knew Star Bright wasn't injured—if he had been, someone was going to **really** pay, since she was the only one who could ride him—but this person probably wasn't supposed to be there.

In retrospect, that yell was probably the worst thing she could have done. The figure stumbled backward while trying to turn toward her, flipping a water trough onto themselves. With a (definitely female) shout of surprise, the girl tripped and fell prone. That would have been enough to make Amane regret snapping like she had, except the trough quickly fell back down and broke, creating a loud **CRACK!** noise that startled Star Bright.

Amane's eyes widened with horror as she saw her horse prepare to kick back just as the girl who tripped was getting back up. She started to run forward, but knew she was already too late, and found her eyes fixed upon the figure flying back, limp as a rag doll from the force behind the kick. When she kneeled by the body to see if she knew who it was, she received the first pleasant surprise of the day (she was expecting Hikari to show up, she just didn't know when it would happen).

The girl was still alive. Unconscious and with a nasty bruise on her head, but alive.

_That's not possible. With that kick, Star Bright should have snapped her neck like a twig..._ Amane realized. _A **dry** twig,_ her thoughts continued even as she gulped slightly.

Still, she couldn't deny the evidence. The girl, _a redhead_ Amane realized by the increasing light, was still breathing, and as she lifted the redhead into her arms, carefully cradling the head, several other realizations came to light.

The first was that the girl's neck was, in fact, almost completely undamaged. The Etoile had seen what happened to human spines when they were kicked in the head by a horse, and it was luck and skill that kept her from suffering similar fates. The force of the kick alone would usually be enough to cause whiplash, breaking the neck easily.

The second was that the redhead, despite an appearance of frailty in the dawning light, was actually toned and muscular, albeit in a lithe fashion. She was not only 'in shape,' she was in **good** shape.

Finally, a fact that would have been more obvious if not for the other concerns (which fretted Amane's mind even as she dashed for the hospital wing, careful not to jostle her ersatz patient), was that this person was stunningly beautiful. Granted, to her biased eyes, the redhead couldn't compete with Hikari, but she was undoubtedly worth a second look. Her vibrant red hair, sylphlike face, and her... rather healthy endowments made her very memorable.

Which added up to a single, obvious conclusion that the Etoile had no choice but to take as her current opinion on the matter.

Whoever this redhead was, she was certainly **not** a current student at any of the three academies on Astraea Hill.

-o-o-o-

Tamao Suzumi wasn't having a very good day either, but hers wasn't limited to the time frame of whenever she finally willed herself out of bed. In fact, she'd been having what Americans would term 'a long Monday' ever since the Etoile elections.

_It doesn't matter that Nagisa-chan was still in love with Shizuma-sama, I said. I could work around that, I said. We were already good friends. Lovers was next,_ she thought sadly. If only Shizuma hadn't come around to declare her love for the peppy, energetic redhead, things would have worked out for her, she felt. _But I can't blame Shizuma-sama for falling in love with her... She couldn't help it. Who could? I bet I could ask around and find at least five other girls who would trade spots with her in a heartbeat. And that just in our grade level at St. Miator's._

Tamao sighed, a deep and longing sound that spoke of love lost and misery gained. No, Nagisa was out of her reach. They were still friends, and she was happy that her friend finally found solace in something that everyone involved knew tore at the hearts of Shizuma and Nagisa... despite the fact that neither would outright admit it. But still... even being happy for Nagisa and her newfound (or was it finally-found?) love, Tamao's sadness at not having someone for her was almost overwhelming.

It didn't help those times Nagisa would smile nervously and blush a lot before saying she'd be spending the night with Shizuma. Deities only knew whether the two were doing late-night studying or if they were exploring their passions for each other, because Tamao didn't want confirmation either way. One would get her hopes up, and the other would make her envious of the former Etoile.

_Speaking of Etoiles, here comes Amane-sama now, with... a girl in her arms? No way that's Hikari-chan. Hikari-chan's a blonde, and that's a redhead.. and... **wow**, there's no way Hikari-chan has a build like **that**. That bust could give even Shizuma-sama competition._ Even as depressed as she was at losing her love, Tamao was neither blind nor dead, and her eyes still appreciated the female form as much as ever, and the girl she saw cradled in Amane's arms was definitely a form to appreciate. Something was off, though, and she couldn't quite figure out what.

When Amane stopped her run, Tamao could see the problem for herself: the redhead was unconscious, and had a nasty head injury by the look of her.

"Tamao Suzumi-san, right?" asked Amane. At the other girl's nod, she continued, "Would you please tell Hikari-chan I might not be able to make it to breakfast at all? I need to get this girl to the hospital wing, and I should probably keep an eye on her there."

Tamao barely had time to nod and mutter an affirmative before Amane was off again. "Amane-sama sure can run," she whispered aloud. "I haven't seen a sprinter like that at the Strawberry Dorms in... ever." Realizing she was expected to tell the underclassman Etoile some important news, she decided to hurry on to the dining hall to inform Hikari.

Knowing the schools inside and out as she did, she actually reached the dining hall just a minute before Hikari, and so was waiting just outside for her. "Etoile-sama?" she said, chuckling dryly in her mind at how the other girl reacted so slowly to the call, which was still so new to her.

"Tamao-chan, you know you can keep calling me Hikari... Having a title like Etoile is going to get to my head if my friends call me by it, especially when you're one class higher than me," replied the blonde, blushing.

Even Tamao had to giggle a little, which the junior Etoile considered a step up. "Sorry, Hikari-chan... I've got a message to deliver. Amane-sama ran past me this morning with an injured girl, unconscious, in her arms. She's taking the girl to the hospital wing now, but wants to watch over her and probably won't make breakfast because of it."

"Injured? How badly? Maybe I should—"

"Oh, no you don't," replied the blonde's companion, a black-haired girl who quickly snagged Hikari by the shoulder to keep her from dashing off to the hospital wing. "You have **duties** here, Etoile-sama. If Amane-sempai isn't here, it's **your** job to do them. Shizuma-sama taught you that, you know."

"But, Yaya-chan—"

"And if I have to explain to the student council **again** that ceremonies can't happen because one Etoile had to watch an injured student and the other dashed off to valiantly be by her side, I'm going to make sure they not only think you're willfully shirking your duties, but that you're doing it to thumb your nose at the school's culture, and then I'll have them forward a report to that effect to the Sister."

"You wouldn't!" squeaked the blonde fearfully.

"Wouldn't I?" replied Yaya with a raised eyebrow.

"You would." Tamao had to hide a smirk as Hikari slumped slightly, before gathering herself and trying to look professional. "I suppose I can see how Amane-sempai is doing this afternoon?"

"Assuming the student councils don't have other duties you need to take care of first. Now, you have a breakfast address to handle, so **march!**"

Quickly dashing in and finding some food and a seat of her own, Tamao scanned the room carefully. _There's Chiyo-chan and Tsubomi-chan, Kagome-chan is over there with Kizuna-san and Remon-san, I wonder where Chikaru-sama is?_ She looked over the room again. Nothing. _And where are Shizuma-sama and Nagisa-chan? They wouldn't skip out on breakfast. Nagisa-chan gets cranky without a morning meal if she's awake too long..._

-o-o-o-

For about the third time that day, an alarm clock buzzed incessantly, its LED display glaring "7:15" in bright red. A slender arm snaked out and slapped the snooze button, not being bothered to actually disable the alarm. As if uncomfortable while exposed, the arm quickly snaked back under a thick blanket, which was draped over a bed next to the nightstand upon which the offending clock stood.

"H'vta get up some time, Sh'z'ma-s'ma," mumbled a muffled voice from the blanket.

"Later, sleep," muttered an equally muffled voice from the same blanket.

-o-o-o-

The first sensation that returned from the blackness was that of pain. Her head felt like someone had cracked her, hard, with a large hammer from her blind side. For some inane reason, a horse's hoof figured prominently into her memories of the event.

Hearing was next to return, though frankly she wished it hadn't. The two voices around her were speaking quietly, or so she'd probably have thought otherwise, but to her they were shouting, loudly and incomprehensibly. It was making her headache worse, and she let a groan of pain slip out as sensation increased.

Her eyes cracked open, revealing that her sight had returned, and much like her hearing, she regretted it. Sharp, bright light stabbed into her brain, spiking her headache and causing her to groan again. Luckily, her eyes adjusted quickly, allowing her to open her eyes enough to get an idea of where she was.

_A hospital,_ she realized. _I'm in a hospital. Or something like it..._ Her head hurt too much for a decent self-check of how her body was handling, but that just made it the most important injury. _Given everything I know, it's... I think it's a concussion..._

"Excuse me," whispered an incredibly soft, gentle voice. Painfully slowly, she swiveled her eyes, locking onto a kindly-looking woman in soft blue-green clothes, as opposed to a glaring white. "I'm Mai Itarashi, the nurse here... Do you understand me?"

Being careful not to aggravate her head, the nodded, the motion bare, but visible to the young nurse.

"Okay, good... You have a concussion. We think it's fairly severe, but you seem to be recovering well. Can you speak?"

Licking her lips to moisten them, she opened her mouth, wheezing past her dry throat, "Where...?"

Mai smiled gently. "You're at Astraea Hill's Strawberry Dorms, in the hospital wing. Amane Otori, a student at St. Spica's Girls' Academy, brought you here."

"Thirsty..."

"Thir... oh! Just a moment." The nurse quickly dashed off, then returned a time later (she wasn't sure how long it took) with a glass of water. Helping her to drink and swallow, Mai successfully (and, to her, surprisingly) managed to keep her from spilling even a drop.

"Thank you."

"We just need to have a few tests. Do you feel up to it, or would you like some more rest first?"

"Let's... do it..."

-o-o-o-

Taking a deep breath, the nurse made sure her patient was focused on her. Then, she help up her hand, fingers and thumb splayed out. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Four... thumb's not a finger, 's a digit..."

Pleasantly surprised, Mai switched to three fingers. Then to one, then four again (though without a thumb this time). Her patient got all of them correct, and she was bending down to pick up the clipboard and mark it, when her patient said, "Four," again.

Looking up in confusion, Mai could see the redhead staring back at her with an unmatched intensity. "Excuse me?" she asked, curious.

"You... had four fingers out... saw your muscles tense for it..."

She blinked, glancing at her hand, and sure enough, her four fingers were out, still prepared to grip the clipboard at the foot of her patient's bed. Which, she reminded herself, she still had to do. Quickly marking down that the patient showed a significant amount of coherence, especially for a concussion victim, she also made note that the patient indicated she could guess the number of fingers extended on a hand by muscle tension in the lower arm and bicep.

_Well, if she's a highly trained martial artist, she might be able to, but..._

"She's conscious?" questioned a semi-deep voice from the doorway. Mai turned, finding the girl's rescuer, Amane Otori.

"Yes, Etoile-sama. She'll likely go back to resting in a moment, and there doesn't seem to be any danger. She's remarkably coherent."

"I'm fine."

Both women turned toward the bed, seeing the redhead sitting herself up. Both women also, consequently, ran forward in an attempt to get her to lay back down, but she resisted their efforts almost negligently.

"I told you, I'm fine... My head hurts, but... oooh..." She began swaying slightly in her seat with her face greening, prompting Amane to help her lay back down while Mai quickly got a pan and brought it over. In just a few moments, Amane stoically observed as the beautiful redhead retched loudly, heaving up about a cup of water and a few fluids into the pan.

"I don't think you're fine just yet, Miss... You should stay in bed for a while. Doctor's orders."

Amane thought for a moment. Hikari would likely be visiting soon, and while the patient was coherent she wanted a name so she could try to explain what had happened.

"What's your name?" she asked.

The redhead seemed to think for a moment. In fact, both women could tell her injured brain was working hard on that question. It seemed to be out of reach, before comprehension lit up in her eyes.

"Tendo. Ranko Tendo. I'm sorry about this." Then, just as quickly, the comprehension faded, and the self-dubbed Ranko lay back into the pillow, falling into a light slumber.

* * *

Okay, first, Tamao's attitude. I want to address this here so I won't have to answer a bunch of reviews on it.

When Tamao told Nagisa to "go" to Shizuma, she was torn. She was happy that Nagisa finally had a chance to be happy with her first love, but she was also sad that Nagisa wasn't going to be happy with _her_. That's how love works... unless you're from Nerima, Nyuchiezhu, or pretty much any ward where a romantic comedy manga/anime gets involved and has "suspension of disbelief" written all over it. Why do I say that's how love works? It's how I feel. If I love someone, I'll let them go. If they're happier with someone else, what right do I have to hold them back? Seeing them become an unhappy shell of themselves would just ruin my own happiness anyway.

Much like Nagisa was when Shizuma tried to break their romance off at first, Tamao is sulky. She'll get help, but for now she just wants some time on her own. That's not to say her depression is getting the better of her or making her selfish, as noted by her helping out Amane, but it is making her jealous of the 'lovebirds.'

Now, Ranma. The situation here is similar to my _Just One Day_ fanfic. The difference is that this Ranma just wants a temporary time off, a spring break from the madness, not to leave and never come back. Well, he's certainly gotten his desire in spades, and then some. After all, nothing to forget your woes and troubles like concussion-induced amnesia, right? And following Ryoga is, essentially, **the** best way to guarantee that absolutely no one can find him. Ryoga has proven that he can get so lost that even Cologne couldn't find him (remember, he **did** fly to Moscow once on a grocery run in volume 37) without extensive searching, and the sheer speed and effectiveness of this also prevents nearly any tracking. Short of having already been following Ranma or Ryoga, it's going to take a lot of tricks and luck to find Ranma again.

Nagisa and Shizuma. Perhaps the oddest thing I've had to do yet is write a fanfic based in an anime where it seems ninety percent of the cast is a definite lesbian, and the other ten only just **might** be lesbian. I hope I manage to express the depth of this particular coupling without making it trite and boring. Hopefully I can also do that without offending someone, but I won't hold my breath if you folks don't.

If I do offend someone, don't mark it in a review. Seriously. It just causes trouble. If something I write offends you, send me a personal message and we can clear it up where it's meant to be cleared: Personally. Privately. If you have a grief you want made public... well, message me and I'll see about making a forum on for it. Or something.

Just don't put your gripes in a review. That's for helping to improve the story's flow and content, not to help improve its political correctness.

Which, considering I listen to George Carlin, I'm probably not too concerned about.


	2. Ch 1: Girl Without a Past

Strawberry Vacation

by Trisar Alvein

**THIS STORY IS HEREBY DISCONTINUED**

Okay, let's see. First, a common question I wanted to deal with right here. There **will**be an in-story explanation of several key points to Strawberry Panic. Why? Ranko's eventually going to ask.

Second, before I even started typing this thing up, I already had a plan for it. I know exactly where I want to go with it and how I want it to get there. The real fun, however, comes with the journey itself. I hope you folks enjoy the ride.

Finally, just to clarify. The screen-wide horizontal lines you see separate the main body of the fanfic from the author's notes and chapter title. The three-dash separators you see throughout the fic separate different segments of the same chapter. Since apparently people have trouble determining that.

Addendum: This was added after I finished the chapter, including the pre-notes. I'm going to try something fancy with the story summary on FFnet.

* * *

Chapter One: Girl Without a Past

* * *

The day could get exceedingly boring, Ranko reflected, when confined to a hospital bed by forces beyond one's control. _Okay, so I have a headache, get woozy and throw up, and turning my head makes the room swim. I've had worse!_ she thought vehemently.

_...At least, I **think** I've had worse. It just figures that whatever gave me this concussion jarred my brain so bad I can't remember much more than my martial arts and book-learned stuff. Oh yeah, and my name and three sizes. Can't remember my dad's name to save my life, but I **have** to know my measurements._

Ranko supposed there was some irony in that, but couldn't figure out what it was for the life of her. Movement at the door brought her attention up, and this time she was careful to slowly rotate her eyes that way. Amane Otori was standing there, along with a blonde girl, a redhead, a blue-haired girl, and a young woman with long silver hair.

Right away, she was able to judge that Amane and the blonde were an item, likely this 'Hikari' person that the nurse kept talking about, simply by how close the two were. The redhead was also together with the silver-haired woman, who Ranko determined to be eighteen, maybe nineteen if she was pushing it, simply based on the fact that she was wearing the same uniform that the redhead and the bluette were wearing.

That left only one girl alone in the room, besides Ranko herself. Ranko herself wasn't particularly perturbed by being alone, though she didn't like the look of lonesomeness on the blue-haired girl's face.

But still, first things first...

"Amane-san, are you going to all stand there like giant dolls, or are you going to come over here and introduce me?" she asked, a wry smile on her face as she realized she was being careful to keep her voice down to alleviate that headache that stayed constant behind her eyes.

"Sorry, Ranko-chan. I didn't know if you were awake or not," replied the 'Prince of St. Spica,' leading the group over to Ranko's bed. "This is Hikari Konohana, my girlfriend and the junior Etoile at Astraea Hill," she said, indicating the blonde. "She's Nagisa Aoi," she continued, pointing out the redhead, "Tamao Suzumi," the bluette, "and Shizuma Hanazono, the former Etoile," finally the silver-haired girl.

"Nagisa-chan and Shizuma-sempai are girlfriends too, Amane-sempai," said Tamao, and everyone could feel the mood drop by two notches from the girl's expression and tone.

"Pleased to meet you all. I'm Ranko Tendo... Amane's probably told you about me."

Nagisa shook her head. "Not really, Ranko-chan," she said. "In fact, we haven't heard a thing about you except that Amane-sama found you in the stable before bringing you here."

"Amane-sempai has told me a few things," said Hikari, suddenly blushing and leaning onto Amane as everyone's eyes focused on her. "Her name, and that she's recovering faster than the doctors thought she would, that's all."

"Well, that's probably because I'm a martial artist. I'm pretty good, I'm sure, but I won't be able to show you until they let me out of this bed," grinned Ranko. "They told me I have a concussion, but nothing besides that. I believe 'em, since I've got a headache and get dizzy spells if I look around too quick."

"You're pretty pale, too," commented Shizuma, though the other girls in the room noted that her eyes were locked firmly on Ranko's. The sapphire orbs in the bedridden redhead's faze gazed firmly back, evidently in a clash of wills. Then, the clash ended. Shizuma smiled at the redhead, who smirked back at her. "You have a strong gaze, Ranko-san. Don't ever lose that strength of will."

"Wait, were you doing to her what you always did to me when we first met?" exclaimed Nagisa, sounding sufficiently indignant as she grabbed Shizuma's arm. "Shizuma-sama, how could you?"

"I can't get out of practice on charming the young and innocent now, I'm still young myself," was the flippant reply. "Besides," she continued, bringing her face down to Nagisa's level and locking eyes with her. Ranko observed as the younger girl seem to freeze, like a toad caught in a serpent's gaze... except the toad wouldn't blush the way the girl did. "You're the one I want, have, and can hold, not anyone else. When I have you, no one else seems to matter. Understand, Nagisa-chan?"

"Y-yes, Shizuma-sama," murmured Nagisa in response. Anything further was cut off by a tender kiss, which did serve to apparently restart the girl's cognitive functions, as her blush faded a bit and her eyes opened up fully again. "How do you **do** that?" she said, this time managing to sound petulant.

"We'll have plenty of time for secrets later."

Ranko smirked at the pair, but that smirk died when her eyes focused on Tamao, who had watched the couple through the entire exchange. It didn't take a genius to recognize a look of regret, sadness, and longing on her face. It didn't even take a concussed, amnesiac martial artist to recognize it. Tamao had given up something for those two, and envied one or the other for it.

Digging her injured brain for a good icebreaker, she found one inadvertently as she yawned quietly. "Sorry, girls... I guess I'm pretty tired," she said. That diffused some of the tension in the air, and the girls on their feet started to make their way out.

With the room emptying, Ranko's eyelids suddenly felt incredibly heavy, and so she didn't notice when Tamao, the last one out, gave a glance back into the room at her, the redhead now fast asleep.

---

"Amane-sempai, how did that girl get injured?" asked Hikari, once everyone was out of the room.

A guilty look made its way onto the older girl's face. "I startled her when I found her in the stable, she tripped on a water trough, water went everywhere, the trough fell down again and broke as she fell, and as she was getting up..." She trailed off suddenly. All four of the other girls had their attention on her. "You're not going to believe this, but... Star Bright was spooked by all the noise and kicked her in the head as she was rising."

Hikari's and Shizuma's eyes widened in disbelief while Nagisa and Tamao simply looked confused. Shizuma opted to explain. "After something like that, Ranko-san should be dead. Her skull should be crushed beyond any hope of recovery, and her neck would have simply been broken by the force of the kick," she said, comprehension and, of course, disbelief dawning on the girls' faces.

"With how fragile the brain and upper spinal column are, she would have been dead before Amane-sempai went over to her body in the stable," said Hikari.

Amane finished the thought without missing a beat. "Which leaves us with two mysteries: how she got here without **anyone** noticing and how she survived that kind of injury."

"Well, I think it would be easy to get in without anyone noticing," piped in Nagisa. "Especially if she's as good a martial artist as she says. The really good ones know how to move silently and hide themselves, I read. I even heard that the really good ones can be practically invisible."

Shizuma gave the smaller redhead a kiss on the forehead, smiling. "We'll have to ask her for a demonstration when she recovers, then."

"If she were **very** good, she might be able to survive that hit... I studied some martial arts when I was younger, just basic kempo and a bit of kendo really," added Amane. The others nodded for her to continue. "The first thing I learned was a trick to help reduce blunt impact. Essentially, you twist yourself with the blow you take. If you're knocked off your feet, you roll to expend the extra kinetic energy."

Tamao nodded. "I read some books on tai chi about that sort of thing. A really, really good fighter could, with those kinds of moves, take little to no real injury in a fight, even if the person attacking them is one of the big, strong types of attackers."

"Well," began Nagisa, unconsciously moving closer to Shizuma, "I think this still doesn't answer the **most** important question. What do we do now? I mean, until she's able to get around on her own, she'll be the school's responsibility, but once she's recovered..."

While everyone else became pensive as that topic was broached, Hikari took on a thoughtful look, contemplating this serious question.

---

There were certain things to be liked about being a Hibiki. A naturally greater strength than your average person, for example, was a definite enviable trait. However, there was also a problem with being a Hibiki, that being their directional sense. Many people will often say that the Hibiki family has no sense of direction. In many cases, this is true. In others, it was so very wrong.

Ryoga Hibiki, as an example, has a sense of direction. It is simply a **negative** one. In such a case, Ryoga often finds himself traversing great distances in mere hours, crossing oceans without ever seeing a drop of water outside of his canteen, and in a most recent case, stumbling out of a horse stable onto a school campus filled to the brim with hundreds of pretty girls. His terminal shyness around females getting the better of him, Hibiki had quite adeptly gotten lost again rather than risk becoming someone else's pet.

In yet another incredibly recent case, the young man had found himself stumbling out of what was apparently the Tendo family's broom closet. This conclusion was only confirmed at seeing The Tendo family seated in the dining room, chatting worriedly. Also at the table, to the boy's surprise, were Shampoo, Mousse, Cologne, and Happosai—though Happosai's presence wasn't **entirely** unusual, as he **did** live at the dojo after all, he simply wasn't always there for meals.

His pseudo-reverie was broken by Akane, the youngest of the Tendos, calling out to him with a bubbly—and, dare he say it, relieved?—"Ryoga-kun!" As she called him, she also jumped up, running over to him and grabbing him in a desperate embrace. As if that weren't enough, she was also crying. It made him want to go into a berserker rage against Ranma—who else could make Akane cry like this?—yet he didn't dare while Akane sobbed into his shoulder.

"Uh... Akane-san," he began, fighting his brain's natural urge to go haywire around a crying girl, "what's wrong?"

"It's Ranma-kun," said Nabiki, plainly. She smirked as Ryoga's face clenched up in anger, but he himself stood firm as Akane's arms were still locked around him. "Akane tried to fix some noodles for him, the noodles themselves coming to life and trying to eat him. After a long talk, Akane realized she was the one in the wrong."

Akane nodded, sniffling and pulling herself away from Ryoga. "I was going to go apologize to him, but... I couldn't find him anywhere. We called up everyone, but no one's seen him since yesterday afternoon when I tried to fix that lunch for him," she explained through her tears. "Ukyo's out looking right now, and Elder Cologne and Happosai just got back from a search themselves."

"It's inexplicable," said Cologne. A deep scowl marred her face even more than the wrinkles did. "There's no way son-in-law could have managed to lose us like this. We tried following his trail, but it twists and turns so much I would have thought it was yours, Hibiki. It backed up on itself enough times that I couldn't track it because it became impossible to tell which way was making progress toward the destination and which way was moving back where we'd started."

A very large sweatdrop grew on Ryoga's head. "Uh, yeah... That definitely **sounds** like Hibiki navigation," he mumbled.

A sudden light seemed to dawn on Happosai's face. "Lost... Cologne-chan, did you happen to see if the Hibiki boy had left a trail there as well?" he asked.

"Now that you mention it, no, I didn't. Why?" she replied

"I'm back!" yelled another voice, just as Ukyo dropped in from the back porch, Konatsu Kenzan also in tow. "I brought Konatsu to see if he could help. He says there was something funny about that place you said was Ran-chan's trail, though."

"Yes, Ranma-sama's path was intermingled with another's: specifically, that very man right there, in fact," explained the male kunoichi, blinking in surprise and pointing at Ryoga.

Ryoga blinked. "What, he's managed to copy my direction sense or something?"

"Oh, no," groaned Cologne. "Worse. He was following you."

"What?! Stupid lost boy lead Shampoo's airen away?" exclaimed Shampoo, glaring at Ryoga.

"Is that right, you jackass?" came from Ukyo, along with a brandished spatula.

"Ryoga-kun, how could you?!" growled Akane, beginning to glow.

"Foolish commoner! Prepare to suffer the wrath of the Black Rose for stealing away my future husband!" shrilled a newly-arrived Kodachi Kuno, twirling her ribbon over her head.

Ryoga could only think of one thing to say in the face of such duly presented feminine fury.

"Mommy."

---

"Ranko-san?" called Hikari from the doorway.

With an expression bordering complete boredom, Ranko swiveled her eyes from the ceiling to the blonde entering her room. "You're... Hikari Konohana, right?" she asked. She smiled in response to Hikari's own. "Amane-san's girlfriend, right?"

"R-right," replied Hikari, blushing but with the smile still there.

"I think my concussion's getting better. I still can't remember anything but what I woke up with and what I've been told, but I don't get as dizzy anymore and the headache's gone down. Plus, I can actually remember names. It took Mai-san a bunch of tries before I finally remembered hers."

"Seven and a half, actually," said the mentioned nurse, stepping up with a glass of water. "You remembered on the eighth reminder before I finished saying it. Here you are, Ranko-chan," she continued, handing Ranko the glass.

Gratefully taking the drink, the room became silent except for the quiet gulping noise Ranko made as she drank. Hikari, however, was confused, and turned to Mai to make it known. "Shouldn't you be giving her something for her headache, too?"

The nurse shook her head. "We've tried. Her body metabolizes things much faster than a normal person. It's the sign of a very well-trained athlete, but hers is faster than even some Olympic champions. The doctors determined that the only level of dosage we could give her for her headache would be incredibly unhealthy."

"They figured out I had such a fast metabolism from meal times," chuckled Ranko, setting the empty glass down. "When I kept asking for another serving after another until I was finally full. It's because of all my training. That's why I'm recovering so fast, too." To Hikari's amazement, the girl actually sat up, scooting back to rest against the headboard of the bed. A flush crossed the blonde's face as she noticed how ill-concealing hospital garb was for a woman with Ranko's figure.

"Er, uh... Right! I see!" Giving herself a mental shake even while her brain burned the image to memory, Hikari focused on Ranko's face instead of her body. _That firm, toned, luscious... Stop that!_ she chided herself. "Ranko-san, I know this might seem awkward, but... I asked my family to run a check on yours, so that we'd be able to let them know you were injured but recovering well. I did this before school, and checked in again just before coming here, right after school."

Ranko nodded slowly, following the explanation so far.

"The Tendo clan is apparently very spread out across the greater parts of southern Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku. Only one branch in particular held a dojo, in the Nerima prefecture of Tokyo. The Tendo dojo. Does any of this sound familiar?"

The redhead frowned in concentration. Hikari could practically see synapses firing behind those sapphire-blue eyes as Ranko fought desperately to remember, only to sigh and shake her head sadly. "There's something," she said, "It's there, but... it's like it doesn't want me to remember it. Or I don't want to remember it and just don't know it yet..."

"I see... Would you like me to have my family call them and see if they know anything about you? Your memory might recover faster with family members helping you."

Ranko bowed her head in thought, her eyes closing as she took a deep breath—the result of which caused Hikari's flush to reignite fully, then grow to encompass her entire face and creep down her neck. Briefly, it crossed the blonde's mind that Ranko might be intentionally goading her like this, but with all she knew so far, she doubted it.

_At least, I hope that isn't the case..._

---

"Is he dead?"

"No, no, he's alive. See? He twitched when I poked him. That means he's suffering from crippling, perhaps horrifying agony from even the slightest sensation, surely the kind that would have killed a lesser man from shock alone. He'll be fine."

The 'he' in question was recognizable as little more than a quivering lump of flesh, though the black-and-yellow checkered bandanna wrapped in its hair could positively identify it as Ryoga Hibiki. Next to him were two shriveled forms, one withdrawing a rather long stick from poking the living bruise.

"So he's alive then?" asked Genma from a safe distance. He didn't want to be too close to the Hibiki boy if the girls came back to finish the job they had apparently started. It would be far too easy to get hurt by one of the more vengeful girls only for her to later claim it as an accident.

"I don't doubt that he'll make a full recovery eventually. He might even wake up by tomorrow!" cackled Cologne, poking Ryoga with her staff again and causing another full-body twitch. "Why, I bet that—"

**Ring! Ring!**

"Hello?" growled Akane's voice from the telephone. Nabiki and Kasumi glanced warily towards the front hall at the sound. "Who? I don't know her. I just said... **Look!** There's no one named Ranko Tendo living here! Now leave us alone!" she bellowed, slamming the phone back into its cradle with a noise loud enough to cause the mass known as Ryoga to quiver again.

"Ranko—?" gasped Kasumi, eyes widening in realization.

"—Tendo?" whispered Nabiki, her own eyes narrowing into a glare as Akane stomped into the dining room. The cold ice in Nabiki's look froze Akane's temper solid, causing her to step back.

"W-What? What's going on, Nabiki?"

"Akane... You just **lost **our best source of information today! I can't believe you! **Ranko Tendo **is an alias! An alias your little fiancé uses whenever he's hiding in his girl form!" said Nabiki.

Shock warred with comprehension emerging on Akane's face, and she could really only think of one thing to say.

"Oh no..."

---

"...and she nearly yelled into my ear that there was no one named Ranko Tendo at the Tendo dojo."

"Really? No one?" asked Hikari, holding a phone up to her ear. She bit her lower lip in thought. "What about the other places?"

"None of the census papers we received were able to find anything about her. The Tendo dojo was the only one that returned anything."

Hikari paused for a minute, long enough that the person on the line asked if she was still there.

"Yes, I'm still here, Father." She paused again, this time for only a few seconds. "There's something else I was thinking of, if it had come to this... I was wondering if..."

---

Elsewhere in Japan, a woman in her middle ages was stepping out of her home, a smile on her face as she locked her door behind her.

"I wonder if my manly son has returned from his training journeys yet," quoth Nodoka Saotome, walking toward the local train station.

* * *

No, Ryoga was **not** 'defeated' by the girls. He never fought back. That's not a defeat, that's getting beat up. Any girl with enough brute strength or technique to cause Ryoga injury can beat him up, which means nearly any of the girls in Ranma ½. Ryoga doesn't fight girls. Much like Ranma, it would seem wrong to him if he did.

Hm... Actually, I think that's the only thing needing clarification here that won't be cleared up in a future chapter. Huzzah for that.


	3. Ch 2: Cat Out of the Bag

Strawberry Vacation

by Trisar Alvein

**THIS STORY IS HEREBY DISCONTINUED**

**Pre-Chapter Rant**

To clarify something that at least one person has mentioned and needs informed on: Akane knows about Ranma using the alias Ranko. I'm not sure exactly where in the Ranma continuity I'm placing this, but it's definitely past book 22 (which, for the unaware, is the book Nodoka first appears in). In fact, for those following along at home, it's at least past book 28. How can I say this so flippantly when I've admitted to not knowing where I've put this?

Simple. Ranma chose not to use the Umisenken earlier. He didn't even **know** the Umisenken until the fight against Ryu Kumon.

Anyway, point is, Akane knows about Ranko. The entire family knows "Auntie Saotome" and "Mrs. Someone-Else's Wife." Akane is not stupid, thoughtless, or brainless and forgot the deception simply because Nodoka wasn't there.

No, it's much simpler and yet infinitely more complex. Akane was driven to irrational rage. It is canon fact that whenever Akane's temper rises, rational thought leaves her and all she cares about is venting. She hits Ranma, pounds Kuno, and refuses to listen to any kind of reason. Just as an example: the legendary do-gi chapter, where Akane thought Ranma's sole intent was to deceive her; when Ranma tried to apologize and explain the whole situation, Akane gave in to her rage and, instead of letting Ranma explain, opted to 'prove her superiority' with the suit.

So, there you go. Explanation finished! I'm done here! Good**bye**!

* * *

Chapter Two: Cat Out of the Bag

* * *

The tension in the air was thick, as noted by Nabiki Tendo. You could almost cut it with a knife. _Or a family honor blade,_ she reasoned. _This could get ugly. __**Very**__ ugly._

Nabiki herself was quite tense, given the situation. Flanked on both sides by her sisters at the foot of the dining room table of her house, she had a perfect view of the Armageddon in the making. At the head of the table, brandishing a katana still sheathed and wrapped, sat one Nodoka Saotome. To the Tendos' left were Ukyo, Shampoo, and Kodachi, each giving Nodoka a wary glance. To the Tendos' right, across from the girls, sat an incredibly nervous Soun Tendo, along with a panda that seemed to be sweating profusely. In the corner of the room, the bruised mass identifiable as Ryoga Hibiki twitched, watched over by Cologne and Happosai.

The brown fecal matter was about to meet the centrifugally rotating air current device.

Nodoka, the very picture of composure and decorum, sipped lightly at a cup of tea, setting it down in front of her. Smiling at the assemblage, she voiced her thoughts. "I assume I've just missed my husband and manly son again, but where on Earth is Ranko-chan? And why did she leave her panda behind?" was her query.

"Ranko?" asked Ukyo, Shampoo, and Kodachi in triplicate, creating an eerie echo.

"The red-headed pig-tailed girl," explained Nabiki.

"The foul red-haired harlot who bewitches my Ranma-sama? I had thought her name was—mph!" Kodachi was cut off in mid-rant by Akane blocking her mouth with one hand.

"I thought that was just Ran-chan's... uh..." Ukyo was similarly cut off by a glare from Nabiki that nearly froze her own tea in its glass.

"Red-hair girl just Ranma curse form," stated Shampoo bluntly, being out of Akane's reach and unconcerned with Nabiki, also proving that the third time is not necessarily the charm.

"Curse...? Young lady, what sort of curse are you talking about, and how does it involve my manly son Ranma and Ranko Tendo?"

The nervous panda began edging away from the table.

"Is Jusenkyo curse. Valley of cursed springs, whatever fall in spring take body of what last drown there. See?" To punctuate her statement, the Chinese beauty flung her tea into the panda's face, turning him into a sopping, sweaty, and **human** Genma Saotome.

"Genma!" exclaimed the man's wife, standing up in shock.

In response, Genma stood up as well, turning to run, and slamming into the floor face-first as a long cane interceded in his path.

"Nice shot, Cologne-chan."

"Thank you, Happi."

Genma, quickly recovering from the stunning impact of the hardwood floor, planted his hands on the floor to push himself to his feet. Despite his years of combat training, he flinched as a geta-clad foot made a home on his left hand, stopping just short of stepping fully on it. His wide eyes went up the delicate foot, flowing past the silken kimono up to the furious expression on his wife's face.

"Genma... I think we need to have a talk..."

---

Mai Itarashi stifled a yawn as she stepped into the hospital wing in the early morning. Her fatigue was quite low, and the yawn was actually the first she had let out that morning, despite already having been up two hours. She blinked at the sight of a rather sleepy-looking blonde girl sitting in the reception area with a sheaf of papers in her hand.

"Hikari-chan?" she questioned, rousing the girl from a half dazed state. "What are you doing here this early? There's no school, and I know you don't have any duties to perform."

"I wanted to speak with Ranko-san," replied Hikari with a sleepy smile. "The receptionist told me that I had to wait for you to give the OK first, though, because she's your patient."

"Well, I was just about to go check on her myself. If she's awake, she'll likely want the company," replied the nurse with a soft smile. The younger girl nodded with a smile of her own, falling into step just behind as Mai headed down a nearby hallway.

_I hope Ranko-san will be all right after I tell her about what her family said... Maybe my offer will help her,_ speculated the young blonde. _It isn't that often, after all, that—_ Hikari's train of thought abruptly derailed as Mai opened the door to Ranko's room and let out a surprised gasp. "What's wrong, Itarashi-san?"

"Ranko-chan is gone!"

Hikari blinked, glancing into the room herself. Sure enough, the bed was completely vacant—though, she noted that someone **had** slept in it the night before—and Ranko's clothes were missing, leaving only the hospital gown she'd worn while a patient.

Hikari flushed a bright red as fantasies of Ranko peeling the seemingly flimsy material from her form passed through her mind, encouraged by memories of her conversation with the girl the day before. She shook her head quickly to dispel the images. There were several things wrong with that fantasy, foremost among them that hospital gowns were anything **but** flimsy and that it should have been Amane in the fantasy, not Ranko.

_Still, what's wrong with a little harmless fantasy?_ a small part of her rational mind attempted to justify. She quickly stamped that thought out, though, a red hue remaining on her cheeks. _Amane-sempai is definitely going to have a visitor soon..._

"That's strange," murmured Mai.

"Wh-what is?" coughed Hikari, snapping back to the situation at hand.

"That window... I'm certain I closed it last night, because it was supposed to be cold, and I didn't want Ranko-chan to catch anything while still laid up."

Hikari banished the images of herself and Amane nursing a particular redhead back to health from the flu as quickly as they formed, focusing rational thought to the fore.

_Ranko claims to be a martial artist, and a very skilled one at that... No one apparently saw her leave, or Itarashi-san would have been the first to hear of it... Her window is open and she's missing..._

"Itarashi-san, I think she may have climbed up to the rooftop to practice," she suggested, fitting the pieces together.

Mai's face darkened as she realized that the proffered situation was entirely too possible, and she quickly turned and made for the nearby stairwell with Hikari in tow. "I should have expected this, honestly. That girl's been showing signs of cabin fever since she stopped being nauseous every time she opened her eyes," she explained as she made her way up the steps, checking back to make sure Hikari had not fallen behind.

Seeing the blonde close on her heels, Mai turned her attention forward, seeing the rooftop access door. As she opened it and the two stepped outside, they at first thought that their quarry was to be located elsewhere, before a dark red form capped with a fiery red blur landed on the roof in front of them. Both easily identified the redhead as the lost Ranko, dressed in her red Chinese tunic and black pants, but before either could say anything, Ranko flowed into motion.

The smooth, graceful movements and peaceful expression on the girl's face created a quiet serenity at odds with the dance that her audience recognized as one of violence and destruction. There was no doubt in either mind. Ranko was incredibly skilled in the arts of deadly combat, so much so that she could execute those attacks with a dancer's grace. A blush of admiration rose to Hikari's face as she saw, for the first time, how skilled this strange girl was.

_Amane-sempai, Shizuma-sempai, Nagisa-chan, and Tamao-chan are going to be so very jealous when they find out I got to see her martial arts first_, she realized, giggling slightly at the out of place thought. The sudden noise served to distract the other girl, and the show ended slowly as Ranko finished her 'dance.'

"Hikari-san, Itarashi-san... I was just... um, well," she stuttered, realizing that Mai was likely to want her head. She did wonder what the papers in Hikari's hand were for though.

For her part, Mai was silent for a moment in contemplation. "You seem to be recovering well, Ranko-chan," she finally said in a perfectly neutral voice. "Normally, I'd immediately tell you to get back to bed right now, since you **are** a trauma patient, but frankly, the fact that you climbed up here and then did all that speaks volumes for your health."

"I didn't climb," replied Ranko sheepishly. "I, uh... I jumped out of my window, to the ground, then from the ground up to the roof."

This time, both of the other two stared at her in mute shock. Finally, Hikari began giggling, quickly becoming the center of attention. "I don't know why I was so surprised at first," she explained to the two curious women. "She survived a horse's kick to the temple, and I just saw a small demonstration of her skill... Is it really that surprising that she can leap up to the roof like that?" Shaking her head at herself even as Mai accepted the rationalization, Hikari stepped toward the redhead. "Ranko-san, I want you to look at these, though just the very first sheet to start," she said, handing the sheaf of papers to Ranko.

The girl's face darkened considerably as she read over the paper, a reaction Hikari could understand. The Tendo clan as a whole had denied the existence of a Ranko Tendo, and the one area that had shown her resident—the Tendo dojo in Nerima—was included in that whole. Finding out that, to your family at large, you were _persona non grata_ was a fairly horrifying shock. It was, in effect, equal to being declared ronin, as Ranko could no longer lay claim to the family name of "Tendo."

"Ranko-san?" prompted Hikari, drawing the redhead's eyes to her own. "I talked an idea over with my father, just in case this happened... If you're interested, go ahead and read the second sheet."

Nodding warily, Ranko proceeded to do just that, placing what she'd just read at the bottom of the sheaf. Her eyes widened in surprise as she perused the document. Quickly, she moved on to the next, and then the next, proceeding through the several papers that Hikari had brought her with frenetic speed. Finally, she finished, leaving her to stare at the one that essentially declared her a ronin.

Mai prompted the redhead this time, curious at to what was going on. "Ranko-chan?" she said, drawing attention. "What's happening, exactly?"

"The Tendo clan says I don't exist... basically, I'm a ronin. That's what the first paper was about," Ranko replied, her voice thick with emotion. "The second one... I need some time to think before I want to talk about it... I think I'd like to get some sleep first..."

Mai frowned at the obvious dodge, but found she really had no grounds to refuse her patient, and so had to be satisfied with leading the redhead back to her room.

---

Pain was a sensation intimately familiar to this man. After all, pain was the sensation one would typically feel both preceding and following unconsciousness with a fight happening just before blacking out. And Ryoga Hibiki earned his fair share of bruises from fighting with one Ranma Saotome as often as he did.

_Speaking of Ranma, he must have really unloaded on me,_ reflected the Hibiki as he realized he was essentially one massive bruise. As consciousness fully returned to him, however, so did realization. _Oh, wait, it was the girls who beat me up this time. No wonder Ranma complains about Akane-san hitting him. It really **hurts**._

He was just about ready to let himself pass out again so he could heal when he felt a slight poking sensation just between his shoulder blades. For a moment, he simply lay there, wondering why he dreaded feeling what really amounted to nothing more than a finger prodding him.

Then his bruise-body made its extreme discomfort known, sending pain singles through every fiber of his physical being. The resulting overload spasmed his diaphragm and vocal cords.

Cologne, who had poked the boy originally, almost flinched when his jaw snapped open and he released a wail more worthy of a banshee than any living mortal. Almost. Though the clever observer, such as Happosai or Nabiki, would have noticed she was trying very hard to keep from laughing like a madwoman.

A light tread alerted both the injured and the elderly to the arrival of one Nodoka Saotome, and as Ryoga rolled onto his back, his eyes met hers. The cold fury in Nodoka's gaze utterly paralyzed him.

"Where is my son?" she nearly hissed.

"I don't know! I didn't even know he was following me!"

Nodoka considered this for a moment. Ranma had managed to evade her for so long by hiding in the guise of Ranko Tendo until, by luck, Genma's curse had been revealed right in front of her by one of her son's many lovers. At the very least, she could admit that maybe his stealth skills were formidable.

"Then you're going to find him for me and bring him home, aren't you?"

"But, I—" weakly protested the lost boy.

"Elder?"

Grinning viciously, Cologne reached out with her staff, prodding Ryoga in a particularly sensitive spot on his many bruises. Thrashing about in pain for a moment occupied Ryoga's time before the agony calmed to a more bearable level, and he found his eyes held by the Saotome matriarch.

"You're going to find him and bring him home, aren't you?"

"Yes ma'am..."

---

Mai Itarashi let out a sigh of relief. Ranko had finally gone to sleep, which was good in her book. Whatever was on those papers had deeply rattled the girl, and Mai had to know what if she was going to aid in recovery.

Ranko was apparently unconcerned for potential guests, a fact that Mai noted as she picked up the papers from where they were casually laid out on the nightstand next to the bed. She frowned at the sheet that covered what Ranko had already said, that the Tendos had declared the non-existence of a Ranko Tendo.

The next sheet caused her to gasp. "Th... this is...!" she whispered, enraptured.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Yeah, I'm knocking Ryoga pretty harshly in this chapter. It happens. No worries, he'll get better.

So, what's on the papers, you ask?

Lina Inverse: What **is** on the papers?  
Trisar: Well, what's on the papers is...

Lina: What's on the papers is...?

Trisar: What's on the papers is...

Lina: What's on the papers **is**

Trisar: A secret!

Lina: ... **Lord of dreams that terrify, sword of cold and darkness**...

There's my cue to run, folks! See you next mission!

"**Free yourself from Heaven's bonds and**... H-hey! Get back here!"


	4. Ch 3: Familial Situations

Strawberry Vacation

by Trisar Alvein

**THIS STORY IS HEREBY DISCONTINUED**

**Pre-Chapter Rant**

I... can't think of anything.

You must all be disappointed.

Oh well. Let's start the show!

Actually, though, to all the people who say my chapters should be longer: I try, but when the well for a certain chapter runs dry... what can I do? Also... this is to all you anonymous reviewers who don't leave an e-mail address. I can't reply to your reviews if I don't at least have a valid e-mail address to contact you by... and some of you I would really like to answer. Oh well.

* * *

Chapter Three: Familial Situations

* * *

Ranko was dreaming. She knew she was, in fact, because she was surrounded by people who she didn't recognize, but felt she should have. Each of their features were slightly shrouded, making them somewhat indistinguishable, but she still felt she should recognize them.

One of the figures, who appeared to be a young woman with long hair, stepped forward, offering her hand to Ranko. "I'm ... You want to be friends?" she said, her lips shaping a word to fill the silence, but with no sound leaving them. "You do kempo, right? Then let's have a little match."

"What? I didn't hear you..." replied Ranko, stepping uneasily back from the girl, who appeared unperturbed. "What did you say your name was?" she asked, but earned no answer.

"You're pretty good! I'm just glad you're a girl. I'd really hate to lose to a guy," said the shadowed girl, smiling brightly before walking away.

"H-hey! Wait!" called Ranko, reaching out, but the other girl was already gone. Instead, a tall, masculine form blocked her path.

"My name is ... Junior. Group E. Captain of the ... club. Undefeated new star of the high-school ... But my peers call me the Blue Thunder of...!" he declared triumphantly. Like with the girl, his lips had continued forming words where no sound had been. "My tree-borne kettle girl! I give you... this!" he said, throwing something to her.

With a deft step to the side, she reached out and caught... and bouquet of roses. Even as confusion rippled through her, the tall boy turned away and began walking off. Before she could say anything to him, he looked over his shoulder and said, "I love you," before vanishing, causing a mixture of revulsion and loathing to flood her being. She tossed the roses aside, clenching her fists tightly to ward off the sensations before a fatherly hand clapped her on the shoulder.

"Well, now! No sweat, your problem isn't so terrible after all!" said a tall, long-haired man. His features were as obscure as the others, but she could clearly see that he had a mustache as well.

"Huh?" she said, obviously puzzled. "I can't remember you or anyone... That's 'not so terrible'?" she asked, finding that she was again ignored.

"My daughter ..." he said, gesturing to a tall girl with a ponytail. "Nineteen. And ... Seventeen," he continued, indicating another girl with a pageboy cut. "And last, ... Sixteen." This time, he pointed to the long-haired girl who had offered Ranko friendship before. As expected, the features were completely indistinguishable.

"Pick the one you want, she's your fiancée," said a new voice, the strange figures around her vanishing like shades. Ranko spun around, coming face to face with another boy. This one was taller than her, but not by too much. His hair was styled the same as hers, and he wore Chinese clothing just like she did. But the most important factor she could see at the moment was that she could clearly see his facial features.

"Who... are you?" she asked, warily stepping back.

"Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this," he said, inclining his head toward her before she was engulfed in darkness.

Suddenly the darkness was gone as she opened her eyes, finding herself staring at the unfortunately familiar ceiling of her clinical abode. As she sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she noticed she wasn't alone, and turned to look at her guest.

"Shizuma-san," she greeted, unsuccessfully trying to stifle a yawn behind one hand.

"Good morning, Ranko-chan," returned the silver-haired woman, smiling softly at Ranko.

"Is something wrong?" asked the bleary-eyed redhead, sitting up. She blinked as she noticed Shizuma's eyes widening and drifting down away from her face, and followed the other woman's gaze down. _Hm... That's funny... I must've been tossing and turning during that nap... My shirt's come open..._ she mused.

She would later reflect that it took far too long to realize what, exactly, was wrong with that statement and to cover up afterward, but a few seconds after realizing she was offering Shizuma a free show, Ranko let out a very panicked "Gah!" and pulled her sheet back up to cover herself. All traces of sleep were wiped from her mind as she began tying her shirt closed without exposing herself again—which, given the saucy smirk on her face, Shizuma would likely have very few objections to a repeat performance.

"My goodness, aren't we the bold one?" said the silver-haired woman with a slight dramatic edge. "To so blatantly flaunt your charms at me, are you trying to intimidate me away from my Nagisa-chan? Or perhaps..." Suddenly, she was so close to Ranko that her face filled the younger girl's vision. "Perhaps you were trying to steal me away from her?" whispered Shizuma, her warm breath caressing Ranko's face and causing her to shudder slightly as a red flush overtook her.

_My god, is this what she did to Nagisa-chan that day? _she wondered, realizing she'd been caught off guard. _I can barely move... and... I can't look away... I'm completely at her mercy..._

Fortunately—though Ranko couldn't help but feel a mysterious pang of disappointment—Shizuma opted to back away from the distressed girl, though her smirk was still in place as she took her seat once more. It was only after the 'spell' was broken that Ranko realized how quickly her heart was beating and how heated her face had become.

"I recently commented on your strength of will, but it seems even you can be caught by surprise once in a while," mused the older girl. "Were you having a bad dream, or do you normally sleep so... fitfully?" she asked.

"I... think it was a bad dream. I don't know." Now that she thought about it, Ranko realized that the dream was so vague that she could hardly remember any of it. She did remember one thing though. Letting the sheet drop from her now covered torso, she turned to face Shizuma. "Does the name 'Ranma Saotome' mean anything to you?" _Not that I expect it to, but..._

To Ranko's surprise, the other girl's face showed every sign of surprised recognition. "How do you know that name?" Shizuma asked, for once as off guard as Ranko herself had been.

"He was in my dream... He dressed and looked exactly like I did... except he was a boy, taller than me, and had black hair instead of red. Who is he? How do you know his name?"

Shizuma bit her lip in consideration. "I'm not at liberty to say, and I've never met him myself. Do you mind? I have to make a quick phone call..." Seeing Ranko shake her head, the silver-haired woman excused herself, quickly leaving the room.

No sooner had she left did Ranko's apparent personal nurse, Mai Itarashi, poke her head in. "Ah, Ranko-chan... Are you feeling any better?" she asked, walking in and sitting down in the chair that was already near the bed. Ranko's eyes instantly focused on the sheaf of papers in the woman's hand, and before either could say anything more, her eyes shot over to her nightstand... which was bare of the same.

Quickly, blue eyes flashed back over to Mai Itarashi, before Ranko flopped down onto her side. "So you know," she mumbled quietly.

The nurse nodded hesitantly. "I had to be sure of anything that might interfere with my patient's recovery... Have you given it any thought?"

Ranko's nod was less hesitant, but her expression was passive. "Yeah... But is it really a good idea?" she asked.

"Give it some time. Talk it over with Hikari-chan. At this point, isn't it really all you can do?"

---

"Miyuki-chan? It's Shizuma." The silver-haired girl rested the phone against her shoulder, leaning her head into it as her friend greeted her. "I know, I don't talk to you as much as I should ever since the Etoile ceremony. I have other responsibilities now that I'm not tied up by that job or tied down by... memories."

"I understand, Shizuma... Is something happening?" asked the girl on the other end of the phone, apparently Miyuki.

"There is, actually... Do you remember Ranko Tendo? The girl that I mentioned that Amane-san found in the stables."

"Nagisa-chan and Tamao-chan have mentioned her too, but yes, I remember her. Why?"

Shizuma tapped her foot in contemplation before finally deciding to answer. "She knows Ranma Saotome somehow," she replied, adopting a very serious demeanor.

There was silence for a moment. Finally, Miyuki asked, "She does? How?"

"I don't know... You should come and ask her yourself... If you can, could you send Hikari-cha—never mind, I can see them coming down the hallway already." Shizuma couldn't keep a smile from forming on her face as Amane, Hikari, Tamao, and Nagisa turned a corner down the hallway and came walking toward her. "Well, they're already here... you should come soon too."

"I will. This is more important than a few student council duties. I'll see you in a few minutes." There was a muted click as Miyuki hung her end of the phone, and Shizuma hung up herself just in time to receive a hug from her girlfriend. Giving Nagisa a quick, and mindfully chaste kiss, Shizuma greeted the other girls that had arrived. "Ranko-chan is awake, but I saw Itarashi-san duck in just as I left."

"If you're worried about me—" Shizuma very nearly jumped, but managed to maintain her composure and simply turned to face the nurse who snuck up on her. "—then don't be. Ranko-chan and I have already talked... but before I came out, I checked to see what was keeping you, Shizuma-chan, and told her of your little entourage. She said she'd like to speak to Hikari-chan alone."

Four girls giggled at the concept of anyone appending the suffix of "-chan" to Shizuma's name, while the girl in question merely managed a half-hearted attempt at looking annoyed, especially with Nagisa leaning against her. As the giggling quieted, Hikari separated herself from the group, knowing what Ranko would want to talk about. Her expression quickly sobered as she crossed the threshold into Ranko's room, seeing the redhead sitting wholly on the bed, cross-legged but thankfully—to Hikari's mind, as she had no desire at the moment to relive the fantasies she'd finally managed to banish—dressed in her Chinese clothing.

As she sat down, she noticed another detail. Ranko was reading the papers Hikari had given her, which explained why the blonde's arrival had gone unnoticed. "Ranko-chan?" she said, peeking around the edge of the paper to get the redhead's attention.

"Ack!" exclaimed the redhead, quite eloquently in fact, attempting to scramble away from the blonde's appearance and succeeding only in thumping against the wall. For a brief moment, Hikari's heart froze as she thought Ranko had just suffered another head injury as a result of her actions, but she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that the redhead had managed to protect her cranium and take all of the impact on her back and shoulders. "Hikari-san? Don't do that again please."

"I'm sorry," apologized the blonde, inclining her head as Ranko relaxed. "Itarashi-san said you wanted to talk to me?"

"She did? I mean, she did! Because I do. It's... about that offer..."

Hikari's eyes drifted down to one of the papers Ranko had spilled on the bed in her panic. In plain view was the offer she had tendered to Ranko.

The offer, by her parents, to adopt and induct her into the Konohana clan as Hikari's older sister.

Smiling at the girl she'd already come to consider a friend, Hikari helped pick up it and the other papers that had been scattered, then offered them to the other girl's hand. "What about it?" she asked.

"Well... do you really think I should take it?" asked Ranko, looking far more vulnerable than Hikari had ever seen... except when she looked in the mirror.

"I think," began the blonde, looking especially contemplative, "that you should at least meet Mother and Father before deciding." There was really no easy way to say what Hikari really wanted to, and having been pressured into so many things herself, she had no desire to do the same to Ranko. _I just know I wouldn't regret having her as my sister... if only I could keep all those __**other**__ fantasies of her out of my head,_ she grumbled mentally.

Ranko nodded tentatively, filing that decision away for later. _Meet the parents. Makes sense,_ she figured. "And... the other offer," she added, holding up another paper with another offer from Hikari's parents and, as well, Hikari herself. This one was considerably less official than the others—the adoption papers were actual official documents for her to sign, while this other paper was actually a personal letter—but was no less important. It was a tendered offer to enroll and fund Ranko in any of the three schools at Astraea Hill that she chose. Included in the offer was that it was still a valid one even if she chose not to enter the Konohana family.

"You'll need schooling, though," pressed Hikari, wanting to see at least **this** offer go through—and managing to ignore the fantasies that danced around in her brain of Amane, Ranko, and herself having 'fun' with the uniform of whichever school Ranko chose. "Education is very important in getting yourself a job."

"That makes sense, but... if I'm still nameless, I won't get a job no matter how much of an education I have. You know how employers are about ronin," replied Ranko. "I'll... I'll wait on this. Until after I've met your parents, then," she continued, nodding firmly to herself. "And maybe after I learn a bit more about the schools."

Hikari nodded. It was a good choice, to wait to assess a situation before making a decision. She could see in Ranko's eyes how she was fighting the urge to make a decision on pure instinct, but the girl also didn't seem to be aware of said fight. Further deliberation was cut off as she noticed Ranko blush, her eyes locking on something at the door. Hikari turned, but was confused as all she saw was Shizuma peeking her head in with her customary smirk. A smirk that, Hikari had to admit, could sometimes make even her weak in the knees when Amane wasn't around.

"Ranko-chan, do you remember what we were discussing earlier?" asked Shizuma.

"Yeah, some boy named Ranma Saotome... Why?"

"A friend of mine who... knows Ranma is here and would like to speak with you, if that's alright."

Ranko nodded in reply, watching as Shizuma slipped back into the hallway. She blinked as a girl with dark blue hair and piercing brown eyes entered the room. A frown briefly crossed the redhead's face as she tilted her head, a faint buzzing in the back of her mind indicating recognition. It was, in fact, the same kind of buzzing she got thinking of the names 'Tendo' and 'Saotome,' but she couldn't quite find the connection.

"Ranko Tendo?" asked the blue-haired girl, breaking Ranko's reverie. When Ranko nodded, the bluette continued, "I'm Miyuki Rokujou... Shizuma told me that you know a man named Ranma Saotome?"

Ranko's face shifted into a slight grimace. "I know **of** him, and I could spot him on the street. I think he has something to do with my fam... the Tendos, I mean," she said, her face darkening at her own slip. Miyuki blinked, but offered no comment. "He was in a dream I had. Tall, with black hair tied in a pigtail like mine, and wore Chinese clothing in the same style I do. The way he was standing... I think he's a martial artist, too."

Miyuki nodded at that. "Yes... He's also my fiancé. I'm to marry him after I've graduated from St. Miator," she said, earning a quizzical look from Ranko. "Is something the matter?" she asked.

"No... but in that dream, there was this older man that was offering up his daughters, then Ranma showed up and said, 'Pick the one you want, she'll be your fiancée.' He was the only one I could see clearly... everyone else was... well, it was like trying to watch them on a small black-and-white TV with bad reception"

Miyuki frowned deeply. That was an odd portent, to be sure. "Anything else?"

Ranko nodded, causing Miyuki to urge her onward.

"I think I know you."

Of all the things Miyuki had been expecting, that certainly was not one of them.

* * *

**Post-Chapter Notes/Rant**

Dun dun dun!

Lina: Stop that.

Sorry. Anyway, not much to rant about. I was hoping to make this longer, but lacked inspiration, felt like another pseudo-cliffhanger, and couldn't think of anything to have happen to the Nerima crew. For any of my interested readerbase though, I've started a forum on FFnet. If you want to talk to me or your fellow readers, there's the place.

See you next mission.

P.S. There's a pun to be found! See if you can spot it!


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